In 2022, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill that would require cryptocurrency wallet providers to comply with bank Anti-Money Laundering rules, concerning the wallets themselves. Senator Roger Marshall co-sponsored the proposal with her.
However, Marshall has gone against the populist principles he ran on, and the bill also goes against the privacy and civil liberties progressivism that Warren advocates for. This summer, the two senators plan to revive this debate on Capitol Hill and have gained the support of law enforcement advocates.
The Warren bill would demand that any individual who creates a crypto wallet designs a money services business that needs to follow regulations similar to those of financial institutions. This means that computer programmers who write code to assist customers in managing their crypto on their phones and secure it from cyberthreats must register with the Treasury Department as if they were Western Union. However, many of them cannot comply with such rules, rendering the bill impractical.
Undeniably, this bill is a Trojan horse meant to ruin the crypto market in the guise of a pro-national security bill. The legislation also aims to prohibit crypto privacy tools, which are vital for realizing Bitcoin’s potential as a means of payment. The Warren/Marshall bill to remove privacy would subject all crypto users to Taliban, Russian, and North Korean hackers’ surveillance, as proven to be true in Canada against protesters.
Marshall’s decision to support this bill betrays his promises as a candidate. His co-sponsorship of this legislation implies that he chooses to comply with Warren’s anti-crypto stance rather than standing up against the regulatory tools employed by progressives to cancel those whom they disagree with.
Law enforcement’s argument that the latest surveillance law would prevent severe crimes seems to fall short in Congress. Hopefully, Gorsuch and other civil libertarians on the Supreme Court can help crypto developers and users preserve their freedom and privacy by fighting for policy change.
J.W. Verret is an associate professor at the George Mason Law School, a practicing crypto forensic accountant and securities lawyer, a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Advisory Council, and a former member of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee. He also heads the Crypto Freedom Lab, a think tank fighting for policy change to preserve freedom and privacy for crypto developers and users.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
